


Engine Failure

by LeDiz



Category: Transformers (Bay Movies)
Genre: Arguing, F/M, Relationship breakdown, Unfinished, robots as friends, robots observing humans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-08-24 02:21:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8352517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeDiz/pseuds/LeDiz
Summary: Even from the beginning, there were problems with Sam and Mikaela's relationship. Bumblebee was there to see the warning signs.





	

Like so very many things involved with being the car to a hormonally charged boy and his girlfriend, this was a particularly awkward situation.

Bumblebee always knew when things were bad between Sam and Mikaela, because she would snatch the keys from Sam’s hand and insist on driving. Usually, no one mentioned it, because it would probably cause an argument, and the humans seemed to have an aversion to fighting in front of him, let alone inside his cab, but things seemed especially bad today, because they had only been driving for a few minutes before Sam shot an irritated glance at her feet on the pedals.

“You know he’s a living being, right?” he snapped, and she scoffed, shaking her head in irritated disbelief.

“Don’t even start with me, Sam. I’ve seen you drive before, don’t even go there.”

“That was before I knew Bee was alive,” he said, but she just shook her head again and kept her eyes on the road. Sam looked out the window for a moment, his hand on his mouth, before he turned to face her again, but she held up a finger to stop him.

“Don’t, Sam. I am really pissed at you right now, I need to drive. I need to focus on the road and the wheel and the gas, because otherwise, Sam? Otherwise, I am going to focus on how humiliated I just was, and I am going to realise how much of it is your fault.” Her hands tightened around the wheel. “So don’t - don’t even try - to say anything about it.”

“You – you’re – you’re forcing Bee to do things he might not want to do!” he cried, gesturing wildly at her hands and feet. “It – it – You don’t know he wants to go this speed or this way or whatever and you’re – you’re like, you’re treating him like a slave, and –”

“You son of a bitch!” she yelled, slamming her hand down on the wheel but refusing to look away from the road. Even furious, she was a good, safe driver. “How _dare_ you? I would never treat someone like that!”

“Oh, oh, really?” he asked, his eyes wide and head jerking as he stammered his way through thinking up a retort. “Cause, you know, that’s all I’ve been seeing lately. He’s not a car that can’t like, feel what you’re doing, you know, he’s – he’s got like, feelings and… and stuff.”

She scoffed out that furious, breathless laugh again. “You think I don’t know that.”

“Well, you sure don’t treat him like he does! That – that tune up you gave him on the weekend, yeah, you… you don’t even think that, you know, his engine is a part of him. Tugging and pulling on stuff like he’s some senseless piece of metal!”

Suddenly, Bumblebee wished he could turn off his audio receptors. Yes, he had complained to Sam that Mikaela was a bit tactless with her work; that she would crawl all over his insides and change them to suit what she thought would work best, but those were not words she was ever supposed to hear. Or, at least, not when he was anywhere near the conversation.

“Oh, my god,” she said, gaping at him for a split second. “ _You’re_ questioning _my_ skills as a mechanic?”

“No, no… No, I think you’re a great mechanic. I just, I mean… You’ve just got the people skills of a rusty chainsaw,” he said, and Bumblebee couldn’t help his whine as she slammed down on his clutch a good three times harder than neccessary.

“Okay. Okay, you have a problem with me, that’s fine,” she growled, violently shoving his gearshift into third. “But don’t you dare insult my ability with cars. You know I’m good at what I do, so don’t you dare even think about going there.”

“Fine then!” he spat, and then spun in his seat to face the window again, glaring out at the traffic as he muttered, “I’m sorry the only things you treat with any respect are crappy old cars.”

For almost a minute, it seemed like Mikaela hadn’t heard him, because she didn’t answer, just continued twisting her fists around his steering wheel. But then they stopped at a traffic light, and his engine quietened, making the silence more noticeable, and she took a deep, steadying breath. “I am not the one who called three of my best friends ‘stuck up, skanky whores’.”

“They were insulting Miles!”

“We were just talking about that messed up report he gave in class, Sam!”

“They called him a freak!”

“He stood up in front of our entire science class and said that iPods are government listening devices designed to track down anti-patriotism!” she cried, staring at him. “He tried to tell us that Mac is a government conspiracy designed by aliens! He is a freak!”

“He’s my best friend!” Sam yelled, and Mikaela only just stopped herself from violently slapping the dashboard.

“And those girls are mine! Those girls are the only people who will still talk to me, Sam! No one else will even give me the time of day anymore!”

“And you’re blaming that on Miles?”

“I’m blaming it on you, Sam!” she shouted, as the light changed to green and she slammed her foot down on the clutch to change gears, and then punched it against the accelerator so hard that both humans were shoved back into their seats. Bumblebee had to fight to get her to lessen up on the pedal, but she soon let him coast down to a safe speed. Then she glanced at Sam’s horrified expression, closed her eyes in regret, and then sighed and refocussed on the road. “Look, I’m sorry. But you have to understand, I used to be one of the most popular people in school, and now, ever since I started dating you, I’m like… social reject number one. I don’t fit in anywhere, because all my old friends think I’m crazy, and all the girls on your level think I’m a skank.”

“My level?” he repeated incredulously. “ _My_ level? You think I’m beneath you?”

“I didn’t say that,” she said evenly.

“But you sure as hell implied it!” he cried. “You think you traded down when you picked me over Trent.”

“I did _not_ trade down, you are a thousand times better than Trent,” she snapped, glancing at him so he could see the truth in her eyes, but he ignored it.

“Whatever; you just think you could do better.”

She sighed out a quick breath, but didn’t otherwise acknowledge it, and Sam shook his head, licking his bottom lip as he looked back out the window.

The fight continued, on and off, in short and furious bursts, all the way to Mikaela’s home, where she yanked out the keys and threw them at Sam before almost slamming the door behind her. She stopped herself at the last second and shut the door gently, patting Bumblebee’s hood as she walked around him.

“Sorry, Bee. I’ll see you around,” she said softly, but then shot Sam an angry glare and marched up the stairs to her door without saying a word. That slammed hard enough for several chips of paint to fall from the rotting doorframe.

Bumblebee nervously waited almost a minute seconds before searching for a suitable lyric and switching on the radio. “ _Let’s drive! Anywhere you wanna go, I will take you there_ –”

“Then you’re gonna have to do the driving, Bee, because I am not sitting in that seat right now,” Sam said shortly, and Bumblebee fell silent, considering.

After a long moment, he decided Sam probably wouldn’t appreciate any more lyrics, and forced his vocal unit to work. It was still scratchy and painful, but intelligible, and didn’t have to rhyme. “Why not? Wouldn’t you like to leave? Drive somewhere?”

“Because she was sitting there, and holding your wheel and…” He stopped, putting a hand to his mouth, and just looked out the window again. “I just can’t do it right now, Bee.”

“That… I don’t always understand humans, Sam, but are you sure that wasn’t her intention?” he asked gently. “Perhaps she wants you to go inside and talk.”

“I don’t want to talk.”

“But –”

“Take a lesson from Rhianna, Bee. Shut up and drive,” he snapped, but then winced and held up his hands. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that, I’m just… I’m just upset, you know?”

Bumblebee hesitated another moment, then resigned himself to the inevitable and concentrated. After a moment, his hologram flickered into place, and he started his engine. Sam glanced around, opening his mouth to thank him then caught sight of the hologram and screamed.

“What?” Bumblebee cried, the hologram turning to stare at him. “What’s wrong?”

“Who – what the – who the hell –”

“Sam, stop!” he said, waving one of the hologram’s hands to calm him. “Calm down, it’s a hologram!”

Sam stared at him blankly for several seconds, as Bumblebee continued watching him warily for a moment before going back to the process of backing out of the driveway. His hologram sighed, glancing at Sam again before offering a soft smile.

“Cybertronian transformers change to suit our environment and avoid suspicion. Earth vehicles do not regularly drive without drivers,” he pointed out. “I was on this planet for months before we met. How do you think I avoided being noticed?”

“I… I dunno. Hadn’t really thought about it,” he said haltingly, looking the hologram up and down. “How are you… are you talking through it?”

“No,” he said, and used the hologram to point to the speakers which were still broadcasting his voice. Sam hesitantly reached out, passing his hand through the hologram, and Bumblebee used it to poke him back, his holographic finger disappearing into Sam’s chest. “It is not advanced enough to stand up to close scrutiny. Only Optimus and Ratchet have solid holograms that can move away from them. It was not my main objective, and so I have not spent much time mastering the skill.”

“Oh…” Mystery solved, Sam sat back in his seat, settling in for the drive. Neither spoke for several minutes, Bumblebee unsure of what to say and Sam quickly falling back into his funk.

The hologram sighed again, and he reverted back to the radio. “ _Are you worried about it? Do you wanna talk about it?_ ”

“No,” he murmured, before his eyebrows met in a frown and he turned to look at the hologram again. “I just don’t get her, you know? I mean, I thought she really liked me! I thought, you know, maybe, we might be… you know…”

“ _I think I’m in love,_ ” a young woman crooned, and Sam blushed but nodded.

“Yeah. Kinda. Maybe. I dunno,” he said, then sat back and looked out the window again. “And, you know, I kinda thought that meant she would like everything about me. I thought she’d like Miles. I like Miles. You like Miles, right?”

The hologram glanced at him sideways, shrugging with a small smile. He did like Miles, it was true, but he liked Mikaela more.

“But she doesn’t like anything about me—” Sam ignored the contradictory look the hologram gave him. “—I just can’t do anything to please her, you know?”

Bumblebee tried to find a lyric that said ‘you’re being ridiculous’ with the exact tone he wanted, but couldn’t, and so just settled for the hologram giving Sam another look and said, “Mikaela cares about you very much. She sees the good in you.”

“No, she sees the guy that’s friends with a bunch of awesome robots that turn into bitchin’ cars and saved the world,” he argued. “That’s not Sam Witwicky. That’s like, some guy that like, took me over for a little while. I’m not that cool.”

Several appropriate song responses cycled through Bumblebee’s processor, but he didn’t think they would really help Sam’s quickly worsening mood.

“That’s the problem, y’know? I’m not nearly as awesome as she thinks I am. I got the hot car, and that got me the girl, but then it turns out the car really more got me, which kinda lowers the whole coolness factor,” he said, and let out a long breath, sinking down in his seat. “She wants Sam Witwicky: friend to the autobots. Not Sam Witwicky, geeky kid with geeky friends who’s couldn’t even pick up a girl without his car setting the romantic mood for him!”

“As I recall, my actions almost made Mikaela walk home, that day,” he reminded him, and Sam groaned, letting his head fall into his hands.

“Maybe we would’ve been better off if she did.”

The best thing about a hologram is that it carried all of the humans’ many varied facial expressions, including the deep frown that he could now favour Sam with. “You are upset. You do not truly mean that.”

“I dunno. It feels like I do,” he grumbled, then paused and looked around at the hologram. “You ever have this sort of girl trouble?”

The hologram displayed his surprise far better than he ever could have. “Have I?”

“Yeah. Are girl-bots just as much of a hassle as Mikaela?”

“I… Femmes are…” He paused, unsure of how to respond. On the rare occasion that he’d come across a femme, he had never been in a position to even consider it that way. For the most part, he’d been too young to appreciate it. After that, he’d been a soldier; he was always in the middle of a mission when he came across femmes. Even if he weren’t, he reminded himself, he was still a mini-bot, which often made interaction with larger bots, both mechs and femmes… complicated. In the end, he offered Sam another smile. “The situation is not the same. You and Mikaela care for each other. You shouldn’t compare it to me.”

Sam rolled his eyes and looked away again, and Bumblebee focussed all his attention on the road.

 

* * *

He’d been recharging when she came by.

It was his habit, these days, to recharge while Sam was at school. At night, he patrolled, did minor missions for Optimus, swapped internet downloads with Jazz, and sometimes took Sam out for dates or to spend time with Miles. In the afternoon and evenings, he was usually busy with Sam, but ever since that fight with Mikaela, Sam had taken to his room with a previously unknown passion.

While Bumblebee couldn’t empathise with the desire, he did understand it. Sam was upset, and many humans, like most of the autobots he had known, preferred to hide away from the world, rather than interact with it.

Unfortunately, that left Bumblebee with nothing to do for a good portion of his day. So he’d begun using the school hours to help the others build the new base, and the afternoons were spent in grateful recharge.

Or, at least, they would have been, had Mikaela not rapped on his hood with her knuckles. Military reflexes had him awake and alert in seconds, but his scout programming kept him from doing much more than flinching as he did so. “Mikaela?” he greeted quietly, and she smiled.

“Hey… are you busy?” She waited a second, and ran her fingers over his door when he didn’t answer, clearly considering her position before asking, “Can we talk?”

Bumblebee hesitated, looking up at Sam’s window, then decided to go for a slightly safer option. Mikaela clearly didn’t want Sam to know she was there, and Sam was hypersensitive to vehicle noise. He formed his hologram, the image of the boy brushing long hair from his eyes as the program booted, and let it lean back against his hood before moving his motor functions into it. Mikaela smiled again and hefted herself up onto his hood, lacing her fingers in front of her shins.

“Hey… Bee, are we…” She stopped, then sighed and looked away. “We’re friends, right?”

“Of course, Mikaela,” he said, staring at her. “What gave you the idea that we weren’t?”

She bit her lip, and Bumblebee noticed her eyes flick up to Sam’s window. “Do you… do autobots have… relationships?” she asked. He hesitated in answering, and she winced. “I mean, like… like me and Sam have.”

“It is different,” he said easily, having already touched on the subject with Sam. “But yes, there are those that do. Some even become bonded, and are always, spiritually, at least, connected. But that is a… deeper relationship than most have, and I don’t think you and Sam have reached such a state yet.”

“Have you ever done that?” she asked, and he shook the hologram’s head.

“As I said, that is a deep and unusual connection that the lucky few experience. The closest that most feel, the closest I have ever come, is more like…” He winced, knowing exactly how to describe it, but also knowing that Mikaela wouldn’t appreciate it even if he did. “It is easier to say that I haven’t.”

“So I guess you’ve never had to break up with anyone, then, huh?”

He paused, looking at her sideways. “Would it be inappropriate to say I have broken up many Decepticons in the past, in return for such breakages myself?”

She looked at him through half-open eyelids, smiling to acknowledge the joke. “Yeah, Bee, it would.”

“Then I won’t say it.”

She chuckled breathlessly and bit her bottom lip, running her hand through her hair. The chuckle lasted longer than her smile, and her eyes slowly closed, her hand lowering to cover her eyes, and then further down to her mouth. “Oh, god, Bee, I’m sorry.”

He blinked, not understanding for several seconds before he suddenly recognised the fluid leaking from her eyes. So this was what an adult human looked like when they cried. He had seen children do it before, bawling at the top of their lungs, but never an adult. It was very different.

He noticed, in an odd, detached way that had more to do with his programming as a scout than anything he consciously thought, that it looked rather painful. Children wailed, often with their heads thrown back and their eyebrows lowered. They usually looked more annoyed than distressed. Adults, or Mikaela, at least, cried with scrunched up eyes and clenched teeth. Her shoulders shook up and down, and she quickly leaned forward, hunched over her knees to protect her stomach.

“Mikaela, I…” He stopped, his hologram’s hand halfway to her back. He really didn’t know what to do. He wanted to comfort her, but how? He’d never seen a human comfort a crying adult, except in downloaded movies and television, and while he did care a great deal for Mikaela, he had no interest in discovering whether a transformer’s hologram could mate with his human’s girlfriend, which was the way those things always turned out. But after a moment, he was spared having to find a suitable response by her waving him off as she slowly pulled herself upright, blinking rapidly.

“No, I… I’m fine, Bee, it’s just…” She took a deep breath, gazing up at Sam’s window. “I love him so much… he’s such a great guy and I don’t deserve someone who takes such good care of me… But I really can’t be with him.”

“You wish to break up with Sam?” he asked, trying (and, judging by her reaction, failing) to hide the horror in his voice. She covered her mouth again and looked away, but he pushed his hologram to lean close to her and stare. “In the name of Primus, why?”

“Because, Bee, he’s just… _We’re_ just…” She stopped, another droplet of saline sliding down her cheek. “We’re so different. We’ve got nothing in common except you guys. We hate each other’s friends. We drive each other crazy because we want so much to be in love, and we keep trying so hard and… it… it just doesn’t work. I don’t want to hurt him, and, you know… that’s why I can’t be with him.”

“I don’t understand,” he said desperately. “You care for each other so deeply, surely that’s enough –”

“It’s not. It really isn’t,” she said, and then buried her head in her hands. “I just can’t do this any more.”

Bumblebee could only really stare at her. He just couldn’t understand it. Mikaela made Sam happy. Usually. When they were engaging in physical activities. And didn’t realise they were doing so on top of or inside one of their friends. Sam made Mikaela happy! She had said as much. He just couldn’t understand…

“I have to break up with him,” she whispered, and then dropped her hands and turned to look at his hologram face-on. “The… the reason I wanted to talk to you is because I’m not sure that Sam’s ever going to want to see me again. And I know that you’re Sam’s guardian way before you’re my friend, but I just wanted you to know that… that I, you know… I really hope _we_ see each other again.”

“Mikaela…?”

“Because that’s what makes this so hard, you know?” She slipped off his hood and walked around to look at his whole form. “I like my life, right now. I like you, and the other autobots. I like helping Ratchet and hanging out around the base. I even… I really like hanging out with you and Sam. I don’t want all that to be over.”

“Then don’t let it be!” he said, still staring at her. “Don’t do this!”

“No, Bee, I have to. I don’t want to screw with Sam’s head or life and he totally deserves better than me anyway, and we are so much better as friends,” she said firmly, raising her eyebrows. “It… stuff that you can get away with as friends just doesn’t make it when you’re lovers. And I really want to be Sam’s friend.”

“What is the difference?” he demanded. “You don’t wish to – to – recreationally mate with him, or…?”

“Seriously, we told you not to call it that,” she said, smiling despite herself before sighing. “It’s not just that, Bee. I don’t think it’s something I can really explain, but what it really means is that –”

“It means she wants to see other guys,” another voice snapped out, and they both looked up at Sam’s window, horrified to see him leaning out of it, glaring at them.

“Sam!” Bumblebee cried. “I don’t understand, what does she mean?”

“You weren’t supposed to hear it like this,” Mikaela began, but Sam ignored her to focus on Bumblebee instead.

“It means that she likes _my car_ more than she likes me,” he said coldly. “It means that she thinks I’m an idiot.”

“Okay, I didn’t say either of those things,” Mikaela said irritably, but Sam just scowled at her.

“However I was supposed to hear it, it means the same thing,” he said. “You know what? Fine. Go ahead, see other guys and see if I care. Hell, maybe Bumblebee’ll take you! Yeah, yeah! Go on, Bumblebee, take her home. Stay there if you want! I’m sure she’ll take better care of you than me!”

And with that, he slammed his window shut, and Bumblebee flinched, gaping up at the window while Mikaela lowered her head to her hands, her shoulders shuddering as she began crying.

“He… doesn’t want me anymore?” Bumblebee asked weakly, and Mikaela shook her head, lowering her hands a little but not raising her head.

“It’s not like that, he’s just being stupid. Will you take me home, Bee? I’ll try and maybe explain on the way.”

He hesitated, staring at her helplessly until she shook her head and walked past him to the passenger side door, opening it and sinking down into the seat. She then lowered her head to her knees and started sobbing.

Bumblebee continued staring up at Sam’s window in shock, before Mikaela’s offer of explanation got through to him, and he let his hologram wink out of existence before flaring again in his drivers’ seat.

He had to find out why Sam didn’t want him anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> The 48 are a collection of unfinished and/or pointless fics saved to my hard drive, now posted on Ao3 for people's interest or in case they want to adopt them.
> 
> This fic was written and abandoned a little bit before the second movie came out, I think. It's hard to tell. I always thought the Sam/Mikaela relationship was super forced and terrible, so from a purely character and story standpoint I approved of their break up for movie three. The way it was handled, and the actual reasons for it, not so much. But I can totally pretend that I wrote this with amazing foresight to explain that whole relationship failure with some actual storytelling. I just didn't get very far...


End file.
